


Bonded

by GingerTodgers



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Background Relationships, Bechdel Test Pass, Bi-Erasure, Bisexual Character of Color, Bonding, F/F, Fluff, Hints of Drarry, Humour, Lesbian Character of Color, Lesbian-Erasure, Soul Bond
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-15
Updated: 2017-02-15
Packaged: 2018-09-24 08:08:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9712739
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GingerTodgers/pseuds/GingerTodgers
Summary: A group of 8th year students are caught up in a rougue bonding charm and Hogwarts is in uproar.While Harry Potter does some heroic stalking and students speculate about which couples are already shagging; two Hufflepuffs are quietly falling in love.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by [this post](http://gingertodgers.tumblr.com/post/157187227980/hprarepairnet-get-to-know-our-members-challenge).
> 
> Inspiration for [ Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil](http://upthehillart.tumblr.com/post/150492960351/queens-lavender-parvati#notes).
> 
> Content Warnings:
> 
> One of the characters vomits (off-screen), references to past depression, bi/lesbian-erasure and the opinions of Old White Men.

The corridor leading to the Hogwarts infirmary was packed. Only six students were waiting to be seen but the bright lights bursting out of the Charms classroom had alerted the rest of the school and by lunchtime there were about 50 students crammed in there. Someone was playing the James Bond theme on a portable set of Weasley Wireless Wailers. Laughter and speculation filled the air. Students were taking bets on who had ended up bonded while others were firing off memos to friends in other parts of the castle.

Harry Potter paced back and forth at the front of the line, glowering at the door. Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley hovered beside him, heads bent together. Everyone knew that Harry hadn't been caught by the bonding spell, hadn't even been in the classroom when it happened, but it was assumed that he had a very good, urgent and possibly even heroic reason for being there.

Hannah sat on one of the deep window ledges, a few feet down from the Golden Trio. She could just about see Harry's dark hair as it bobbed back and forth, the rest of her view was blocked by a group of 5th year Ravenclaws. They were speculating about who else might have been caught up in the blast. Only a handful of 8th years had taken Advanced Charms this year and, as Hannah listened, the Ravenclaws began narrowing it down.

"...only two from each house so obviously it's Granger and Weasley for Gryffindor."

"Can't imagine they'll even notice the difference, did we hear what kind of bond it was?"

"Romantic I think... reaches out through the magical core..."

"...developed as a peace keeping tool between warring families..."

"Yes, yes, but what about the rest of them?"

"Anthony and Marietta for the Ravens..."

"...doesn't Anthony look murderous?!?"

"Oh I can't see him, how does Marietta look?"

"Gleeful."

"Slytherin has to be Parkinson and Malfoy..."

"Of course, look at that heroic brooding."

The Ravenclaws fell silent, presumably to better stare at Harry. Hannah shifted, one bum cheek going numb, and knocked Susan's book.

"Sorry" she whispered. Susan didn't look up but she did nod, smoothing the bent corner of the page. They hadn't spoken about the bond. Hannah could feel it, pushing up under her ribs. Tugging. She pictured one of her uncle's long silver fishing lines, embedded in her chest and leading back to Susan. Every now and then the line jerked, testing.

"What about the 'Puffs?"

"No idea."

"They're probably loving it."

"Aren't they all bonded anyway? All for Huff and Puff for all!"

Gales of laughter were cut short as the infirmary door swung open.

Draco Malfoy's white hair stalked over to Harry. Hannah considered standing up on the window ledge for a better view, but that would put Susan on eye-level with the hem of her skirt and, really, she could guess what was going on. The white hair and dark hair were very close to each other now, the corridor fell silent and a faint "Potter" was heard.

"Malfoy".

"Come on boys" that was Parkinson. "Let's discuss this somewhere more private, shall we?"

The white and dark hair disappeared and, like a plug had been pulled, the corridor emptied. Hannah stretched her legs out in front of her, flexed and rotated her ankles. Hermione and Ron were already inside. Marietta and Anthony were next, Marietta's grin gone by the time they emerged. Each couple left clutching a vial of smoking potion, pink for the boys and blue for the girls. Hannah flexed again, Pomfrey called their names.

As they walked towards the infirmary door, Hannah felt fingers lightly brush against her wrist. It was soothing, like rubbing a dock leaf on a nettle sting. Her own fingers twitched, wanting to reach out, but Susan has ahead of her now, nodding hello to the professors waiting inside.

***

McGonagall cut to the chase. It was the fourth time the Headmistress had delivered this lecture and Susan appreciated the fine tuning. The bond would be gone in a few weeks; until then they were to take the same classes, sleep in the same bed, and collect their daily dose of bond-suppressant from Professor Slughorn. As the bond faded they would be able to spend more time apart but, for now, they should not be out of each other's sight for more than 15 minutes.

"Should be jolly for you girls, eh?" Slughorn interrupted. "Rather like a sleepover!" He chuckled at them. Hannah offered a weak laugh. McGonagall, Pomfrey and Susan remained stone-faced.

Slughorn handed both girls a pair of purple potions. "One for now and one before bed" he explained, twinkling at Hannah. Hannah smiled back.

"Why is the potion purple?" Susan asked.

"Purple for pals" beamed Slughorn.

"Pals" Susan said.

"Pals?" Pomfrey asked, her eyebrows drawing together.

"Pals? Horace?" McGonagall said.

"Pals!" Slughorn confirmed. "Nasty stuff these bond-suppressants, especially for repressing... ah... romantic feelings... No need to subject you girls to that so I've given you the half dose. Helps moderate platonic feelings, rather than messing around with your hormones."

"Right" Susan was suddenly very tired.

"Right" Hannah sounded cheerful and Susan felt a rush of irritation. Was it really too much to ask that she be accidentally bonded to someone who wasn't such a cliche Hufflepuff? Someone who might even help her stand up to Slugface and demand the proper potion?

McGonagall was watching the two of them, eyes darting back and forth. Slughorn collected his cauldron and bustled off, giving a cheery wave as he exited the room. The four women sat in silence, staring at the purple vials.

***

Hannah's head hurt. The infirmary lights were far too bright and the hushed whispering of Pomfrey and McGonagall was starting to feel like someone was pressing a cheese grater to her right eyeball. That made her think of lunch and she wondered if there would be any jacket potatoes left. Hufflepuffs may have a reputation for being all kind and noble but when it came to baked, fried, mashed or even boiled spuds all bets were off. Why was this taking so long?

"What are you thinking about?" Susan was still slumped in her seat, eyes fixed on the purple potion.

"Potatoes."

Susan snorted and slipped even lower in her seat, her nose almost level with the table. "Fucks sake."

Hannah's head throbbed. Pomfrey and McGonagall continued whispering in the office. A fly buzzed against the infirmary window.

"Do you know what I'm thinking?" Susan asked.

"What are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking that maybe, just maybe, there are more important things to be thinking about than bloody, fucking, shitting potatoes." Susan's voice rose and Hannah's headache moved down to the base of her skull. "I'm thinking that we're being fobbed off with some shitty, watered down potion and..."

"Susan" Hannah interrupted, massaging her temples "shut the fuck up." She kept her tone friendly and counted the micro-seconds it took for Susan to realise what she'd said. A beat passed and Susan sat up, turned to face Hannah.

"What?"

"Just because I'm not pitching a fit doesn't mean I'm not pissed off about this. We aren't all born to angst." Hannah smiled with all her teeth. Susan's mouth dropped open and her shoulders started to rise. Hannah gripped the seat of her chair.

"You know what?" said Susan. "Fuck..."

"Girls!" McGonagall loomed over them. "That is enough. Susan, with me, Hannah, go with Madam Pomfrey."

***

"She's scared, love" Pomfrey added something gory to the potion she was stirring and then sat back, watching Hannah.

"I know" Hannah said. "I'm scared too. She's just so... she doesn't... does she really think..." trailing off, Hannah fixed her gaze on the potion. It was turning a bright blue.

"She's just so?" Pomfrey's face was serious but her eyes were twinkling, Hannah gathered up her courage.

"Like. Does she really think that I don't want the proper potion as well? That I'm happy that Slugface" Pomfrey coughed but didn't correct her, Hannah continued "that he wants to give us the gal pals potion because it hasn't occurred to him that we might... like, like each other? In that way?" Her face burned. She'd only come out to her Dad over the summer and Pomfrey really wasn't the next person she was expecting to tell.

"Hannah, you know nothing we say in here leaves this room" Pomfrey said. "Which is why I want you to listen closely because this is the only time I will say this. One. I am your Healer and I would never allow a colleague's limited view of the world to effect the treatment either of you girls receive. You will come to me for your blue potions and I will speak to Professor Slughorn. Not about your sexuality" she lifted a hand to forestall Hannah, "just to tell him that we feel it's important for all the students caught in the bonding-charm to be given the same treatment until it's true nature is understood."

Hannah nodded.

"Now" Pomfrey gave the potion another stir. "I think you already knew that I would do this and that is why you went along with Professor Slughorn's nonsense about gal pals and sleepovers." Hannah nodded again, Pomfrey smiled at her. "This leads us to point Two; you are safe here. I know it hasn't always felt like it in recent years, but Hogwarts is under new leadership and I hope you will feel comfortable expressing yourself."

"So you're saying..."

"I'm saying that you can stop worrying about... scaring people."

"Easy to say."

"And not as easy to do, yes I'm aware" The potion was ready and Pomfrey began decanting it as she spoke. "Ms Bones is currently having it pointed out to her that while she was making sure that her sexuality didn't impact the medical care she received. You, as a woman of colour..."

"I prefer "mixed"" Hannah interrupted.

"You were worrying that your sexuality would impact your treatment  _and_ that pushing back would see you labelled as an angry.. ah... mixed race woman."

"That's what McGonagall is saying to her?" in Hannah's experience, white women were not the best people to explain stuff about race. Still, she tried to keep the doubt out of her voice. Pomfrey smiled as if she knew exactly what Hannah was thinking, and handed over four vials of blue potion.

"Good luck, dear. You should come over for tea with Minnie and me in a couple of weeks. Bring Susan too."

Minnie. Right.

Waving goodbye to Pomfrey, Hannah avoided Susan's eyes as they left the infirmary. They walked back to the Hufflepuff common room in silence.

***

"I'm sorry." Susan's face was flushed and her eyes looked like they were taking up two thirds of her face.

"Right." They were alone in the dormitory, the transfigured double bed between them. "Um... what are you sorry for?"

"For being a dick." Susan's prompt answer surprised a smile out of Hannah and she sat down against the headboard, patting the space next to her. Susan sidled onto the bed, her eyes still massive. She knelt beside Hannah.

"And I'm sorry for assuming that you didn't care about the potions."

"Well. I'm sorry I told you to fuck off."

"I'm sorry I made you feel like you had to back me up."

"I'm sorry I didn't back you up."

"I'm sorry about the potatoes."

Hannah laughed. "I'm sorry for thinking you were straight."

"Yeah how did that happen, exactly? I've been out since 4th year."

"I didn't know that..." Hannah trailed off, wondering how they'd managed to share a dormitory for nearly eight years and yet still knew so little about each other. She turned to ask but the words dried up when she realised how much nicer Susan looked when she was laughing.

Susan's habitual frown was smoothed out, leaving her thick dark eyebrows to arch gracefully across her forehead. Her mouth was wide and soft looking, even when it was stretched into a grin. Small dark moles curved down from her right temple, behind her ear and into the cropped black hair that Hannah has always thought rather severe. Up close it looked much softer and her fingers itched to trace the moles back through the dark waves along Susan's hairline.

"I didn't know that you were... um..." Susan paused, looking at Hannah expectantly.

"Bisexual" Hannah exhaled quickly, fighting back the familiar flush of panic and unease. "What... um..."

"Lesbian" Susan nodded. "We should go to bed. Sleep."

"Well I should warn you, I'm a cuddler."

"Such a Hufflepuff." Susan's voice was fond and Hannah laughed again as she got up to put on her pajama bottoms. "So" Susan's voice was muffled as she pulled off her jumper. "Are you warning me because you might cuddle me or because I might wake up to a Howler from your jealous girlfriend?"

"Woah, so smooth."

"I know right, with lines like this can you believe I'm single?"

"And now I know you're single, nicely done."

"You know all these things and the only thing I know about you is that you're still not used to being out."

"How do you know that?"

"You have a tell" they were both in bed now, under the covers and lying on their sides, facing each other.

"I have a tell?" Hannah felt a rush of joy. This was flirting. Not the kind of flirting boys did when the talked about the "sick dives" they'd pulled off in Quidditch and offered to get the Puddifoot's Premium Passion Package during trips to Hogsmeade.

This was knowing that someone had been watching you, imagining their eyes trailing across your neck and collarbones and flushing with heat at the thought of it. This was everything that Hannah had been too scared to allow herself and now, here it was, maybe not from her first choice - Susan was no Cho Chang - but still here. Finally.

These thoughts carried her off to sleep and she missed Susan's whispered reply.

***

Susan woke to the sound of Hannah throwing up in the bathroom. Her own stomach rumbled, gurgled, then appeared to make up it's mind that she deserved a few more minutes in bed. The other girls were still asleep and Susan's eyes traced the early morning light as it slipped through the curtains. Last night's good mood had been replaced by aching embarrassment.

Was it the bond strong enough to override eight years of polite small-talk? Hannah was part of what Susan privately called the insufferable sunbeam crew. Relentlessly cheery and upbeat, Hannah was always surrounded by friends. Even when things got really bad in their 7th year, Hannah had carried on mentoring the firsties in Herbology, calling "Good Morning" whenever she passed Susan on the stairs and helping the house elves decorate the common room for Christmas.

Flashes of McGonagall's speech kept coming back to her and she tucked her knees into her chest. Guilt and humiliation warred as she remembered how quickly Hannah accepted her apology last night and then Susan... Fuck. Susan flirted with her. Like Hannah had chosen to share a bed with her. Like Susan hadn't just treated her horribly. Fuck.

How would she cope being bonded to Susan? Susan who up until a few months ago only had a 50:50 chance of getting out of bed in the morning. Sad-Sack Susan who kept bursting into tears in the middle of breakfast, who had been to more funerals than birthday parties and who refused to watch Quidditch because she still had nightmares about Harry Potter's lifeless body falling through the air.

The bathroom door opened and Hannah stumbled back towards the bed, wiping her mouth on the back of her wrist. Her carefully styled curls were still intact but there were dark circles under her eyes and sick on her shirt. Susan wordlessly Vanished it, earning a limp smile from Hannah, and conjured up a glass of water. Hannah collapsed next to her, face down, and ignored Susan's attempts to roll her over.

"C'mon Hannah, it'll make you feel better."

"Can't" the reply was muffled. "I'll jus bring it back up again."

"Is it the potions?" Susan belatedly realised that she was stroking Hannah's back.

"Think so, s'all I can taste this morning."

"Do you want me to fetch Pomfrey?"

"Yeh maybe" Hannah's voice was even softer, she sounded like she was going back to sleep.

"Hannah? Hannah!" Susan set the glass to hover and pulled Hannah up by her shoulders.

"What?" Hannah stared blearily at Susan.

"Drink this water and chat to me for 20 minutes before you sleep."

"But sleep is good. I want it." Hannah's pout was adorable. It shouldn't be, considering that mouth was responsible for the state of the Hufflepuff girls' bathroom. But Susan had long given up trying to control the laws of the universe and apparently the universe had decided that sleepy, ill Hannah should look exactly like a grouchy otter cub.

"Yeah I know but I'm not leaving you alone until I know you're hydrated and can hold a proper conversation."

"Is this a Muggle thing?"

"Yes" Susan rolled her eyes. "Not letting your bond-partner slip into a magical coma is a Muggle thing. Now come on" she slipped her other arm around Hannah and propped her up against the bed. "Talk to me."

***

"Madam Pomfrey?" Susan hovered at the Infirmary doorway. Pomfrey had been arguing with Harry for the last 15 minutes and Susan could feel the bond tugging at her.

"I just need to see him for a few minutes" said Harry, gazing beseechingly at Pomfrey and rubbing his scar. Twat. Susan liked Harry but the bond was starting to twang, unease lancing through her.

"Mr Malfoy is sleeping, Mr Potter and I really cannot..."

"Madam Pomfrey?" Susan tried again. "Hannah's really sick. I tried to get her to come here but she couldn't get out of bed, will you come?" As Pomfrey turned towards her, Susan noticed Harry sneaking behind one of the screened-off beds. Pomfrey, busy packing her bag, seemed to have forgotten about him.

By the time they made it back to the Hufflepuff dormitory Susan was lightheaded and seeing spots. Hannah was curled up on Susan's side of the bed, making unhappy snuffling noises.

"Best get in, dear" Pomfrey said as she unpacked her bag. "The bond will be making her feel even worse and you don't look well yourself."

The relief Susan felt as she climbed under the duvet was blissful. All the tension seemed to flow out of her body and, as she wrapped her arm around Hannah's waist, Susan realised that they were both smiling. Hannah's smile was small, her eyes still screwed shut, but it was there. Pomfrey was waving her wand over both of them, muttering diagnostic spells and Susan sank back against the pillow, burying her face in Hannah's hair. She heard Hannah saying something to Pomfrey, answer one of the matron's questions with a breathless chuckle.

A few minutes later Pomfrey was bustling out; leaving an anti-nausea potion for Hannah and a sick note for them both. They were sternly instructed not to leave the common room, even for meals, and to owl Pomfrey if either of them felt worse.

***

The rest of the day passed in a haze of naps, concerned housemates, and very potatoey meals. Hannah flushed when she noticed Susan examining their dinner.

"It's the house elves" she said. "They know I like potatoes and that I've not been well so..."

"I like potatoes, too" Susan said, taking a massive bite of mash.

"Really?"

"Yes."

"Bloody, fucking, shitting potatoes?" A stripe of red appeared on each of Susan's cheeks and Hannah had to bite the inside of her own mouth.

"I said I was sorry about that." Susan's eyes were back to taking up half her face.

"s'alright my little bush-baby" Hannah reached out and ruffled Susan's already rather ruffled pixie crop. "I forgive you, just not sure if the potatoes will."

"Potatoes hold a grudge, do they?" Susan asked.

"Yep" Hannah nodded mournfully. "Have you ever had food poisoning from a potato? Vicious."

"How is that even possible? And why am I a bush-baby?"

"Well, like a moldy potato" Hannah started, ducking as Susan tried to steal her last veggie sausage. "You have very big eyes. Especially when you're feeling guilty. Makes you look like a bush-baby." She gave up trying to defend the sausage and used her wand to draw a bush-baby above the foot of the bed. Susan eyed it thoughtfully, chewing.

"You look like an otter when you've been sick" she eventually offered. Barely allowing the words out of her mouth before shoveling in another fork full of food.

Hannah huffed but carried on eating. Knocking her elbow softly against Susan. Susan nudged her back.

***

Harry caught up with her at the end of Transfiguration.

"HiHannahHowAreYouDoYouHaveAMomentToTalkAboutTheBond?" Hannah blinked at Harry, trying to decipher his breathless greeting. This was the problem with Gryffindors, they were always in such a hurry that they quite often ended up slowing things down.

"The bond?" she checked. Harry huffed, blowing a great cloud of fringe out of his face.

"Yes the bond. Do you mind?"

"Of course, what do you want to know?"

"You're single, right? Or, you were?"

"Yes I'm single." A crowd of first year Hufflepuffs ground to halt, agog to know if a fellow badger was, finally, being asked out by The Chosen One.

"How do you... um... how do you feel? Now that you're bonded? What are your... um... feelings?"

"I feel alright. Susan's really nice. You know she still has every Babystitter's Club Book ever published, including the detective series and..."

"Yes, yes" Harry interrupted, pulling his hair. "I meant, has being bonded made you have romantic feelings for... um..."

"Susan" Hannah supplied.

"Yes. Right."

"Well I definitely..."

"Because I was wondering" Harry interrupted, again. There better be a foiled Death Eater attack at the end of this. "If you had been, say, flirting with someone who wasn't Susan. Or, well not flirting, but, um... looking and sometimes talking and maybe thinking of asking someone out before you got bonded to Susan. Would you 'um. Would you feel differently about them now?"

Hannah stared at Harry, the first years moved on.

"Yes."

"Yes?"

"Yes I would feel differently about other people now. If there were other people."

"Right. Right! So I should just. Yeah! Ok!" Harry beamed at her and executed a 180 degree turn, raising his hand. "Hey Draco!" he jogged off, leaving Hannah to wonder how he always seemed to know where Draco Malfoy was.

"So" Susan was leaning against the classroom door, looking at Hannah as if she'd just said something meaningful, rather than a one syllable sentence.

"What?"

"You feel differently about dating other people, now that you're bonded to me?"

"Yes" Hannah tried to smile back. It didn't really work.

"So your girlfriend..."

"I don't have a girlfriend."

"Yeah, thanks for making me angst about that for the last week though. Very Hufflepuff of you."

"You're a Hufflepuff too."

"I prefer to think of myself as a chirpy Slytherin."

"More like an emo Gryffindor."

"But you like that?" Susan's eyes darted across her face.

"Yes, I like it."

"Good."

"Yeah."

"We should hold hands, for the bond."

"Right" said Hannah, "for the bond."

*** 

It took a week for Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil to seek them out.

Hannah and Susan were sharing a mug of hot chocolate on one of the courtyard benches. The leaves were starting to change colour and Susan was threading them onto a piece of ribbon.

The necklace was supposed to be for Luna but, after the 4th time she caught Hannah eyeing it, Susan had decided to make Luna some conker earrings and save the necklace. Maybe she'd give it to Hannah at the the Halloween ball.

"Hello girls" Lavender floated down next to them, brushing an invisible leaf from the bench and rearranging her robes so that they perfectly framed her slender ankles.

Lavender was very fond of her ankles, Susan knew this because Lavender had explained, at length, about what a burden it was to have such dainty ankles and how much she envied Susan's own "sturdy" ankles. It was after that particular conversation that Susan started wearing chunky boots.

"Alright Lav?" said Hannah.

Lavender wrinkled her nose at the nickname before pulling Parvati down into her lap. Parvati looped an arm around Lavender's neck and wrapped her own robes around the two of them.

"How've you been?" She asked. "Enjoying the bond?"

"S'alright" Susan nodded, squirming out from under Parvati's robe. Typical Gryffindors. Why sit next to someone when you could sit on them?

"Here" Hannah reached for Susan, turning her around so that her back was pressed to Hannah's front. They weren't quite as cosy as Lavender and Parvati looked, but it was nice to feel Hannah against her. Usually they only did this first thing in the morning, before the other girls woke up.

Lavender and Parvati exchanged a meaningful look, full of eyebrow twitches and minute head shakes.

"So Bonesy" Lavender said "I imagine this has been a dream come true for you. Finally getting Hufflepuff's golden girl into bed." Susan felt her throat go dry. She swallowed, coughed, swallowed again and finally choked out;

"Yeah well she snores so..."

"Hey!" A warm laughed tickled her ear. "At least I don't kick." Hannah's trainer curved around Susan's ankle to knock against her foot. The same foot that she'd somehow managed to kick Hannah in the head with two nights previous.

Susan only looked at their entwined ankles for a second but when she glanced up she realised she might as well have made a 20 minute love declaration in the middle of the Great Hall. Lavender was positively drooling and Parvati looked like she was about to burst.

"Right" said Lavender. "How can we help?"

"With what?"

"Oh Bonsey" Lavender hid a grin in Parvati's shoulder. "Just because this bond is the best thing to ever happen to you doesn't mean that Hannah feels the same way."

"Seriously, Han" said Parvati, leaning forward. "Anything we can do to make your life easier, just say the word. An undercut, dental dams" she looked at Susan "Indigo Girls tickets."

"I do not listen to the Indigo Girls" Susan began, struggling to sit up.

"But you wouldn't mind a dental dam?" Lavender's voice was dipped in sugar.

"No" Susan tried to sit up again, Hannah's arms tightened around her waist. "For your information..."

"You must forgive Lavender" Parvati interupted. "She's such a romantic at heart and she knows how excited you must be to no longer be the only lesbian in Hufflepuff."

"Actually I'm bi" said Hannah.

"Oh lovely" for the first time since they'd sat down, Lavender's smile was genuine. "Listen" she leant forward, shifting Parvati off her knee, "I'll admit we're fucking with you but if this thing" she gestured between them "is real and not just Bones pining after another lost cause then welcome to the invisible lesbian club, Hannah. You can snog Bonsey in front of the whole school and they'll still assume you're BFFs, hoping to impress the boys."

"Thanks" Hannah pressed a light kiss into Susan's hair. "Can't wait, and I'm bisexual. So I guess your club needs a new name."

"Well" said Lavender, "This has been... um... been delightful but we really must be going" she stood, wrapping an arm around Parvati's waist. As they exited the courtyard laughter and "fucking Hufflepuffs" floating back towards the bench.

Hannah sighed. "Lord save me from Gryffindicks".

***

They stayed on the bench for another hour. Hannah kept her arms wrapped around Susan and made encouraging noises as Susan explained why Lavender hated her so much.

"...and then when she walked in on Cho and me I think she took, like, offense?" Susan finished, linking their fingers together. "Everyone knew Harry fancied Cho and I think Lavender thought I'd been holding out on her by not saying we were together."

"I still can't believe you went out with Cho Chang."

Susan stiffened in Hannah's arms.

"Why?"

"Um, because watching her do a Wonski Feint was what made me realise I wasn't straight."

"Really?!?" Susan turned, grinning gleefully. "My first girlfriend was responsible for your sexual awakening?"

"Yep." Hannah lifted their hands, fingers still linked together. "This feels nicer though" she brushed a kiss over Susan's knuckles and heard her breath catch.

"Nicer?" Susan sounded distracted but, when Hannah looked up, her eyes were frantically darting across Hannah's face.

"Yeah, more real."

"So I'm your consolation prize because you can't go out with my ex?"

"No, you massive fucking emo" Hannah grinned, shifting closer. "Stop disgracing your house name and just take the good from what I said."

"You seem very confident that it's something I want to hear" Susan didn't even try for nonchalence.

"Well according to Lavender and Parvati you've had a wide-on for me since 4th year so..."

"Ew!" Susan grimaced. "A fucking "wide-on"? That's appaulling, you clearly need to be educated in queer-friendly terminology and also how not to sound like a 12 year old boy."

"Says someone who seems to be going out of their way to look like a 12 year old boy?"

"And you say I'm a disgrace to Hufflepuff?" Susan laughed, shifting even closer. "Shouldn't you be hugging me right now and telling me that you love me no matter how I look?"

"Well I do" said Hannah, moving forward to, finally, kiss her.

Susan gave a squeak and then melted into the kiss, winding her arms around Hannah's neck and opening her mouth. Hannah had only kissed boys but it didn't seem that different. Susan tasted of cocoa butter lipbalm and her skin was softer when Hannah cupped her face but the heat was still there. The breathy sighs and the fumbling to find a better, the best, angle.

Behind them, someone coughed.

"Alright girls?" Ron Weasley was gazing at a patch of wall roughly 6 inches above Hannah's head. "Haven't seen Malfoy, have you?"

"Draco Malfoy?" said Susan. "I thought Harry was the one obsessed with him."

"Yeah" Ron sighed and mournfully kicked a leaf. "Yeah he is but no one's seen the Ferr-uh-friend... for a couple of days and Harry's getting worried."

"Ron!" Hermione skidded to a halt at the courtyard entrance. "Have you asked them?"

"In a minute" Ron called, going back to staring at the wall.

"We haven't seen him" said Hannah.

"Right. Thanks. Carry. Um. Carry on." Ron turned and hurried after Hermione, the tips of his ears were bright red.

"So much for the secret sapphic club" Susan sighed, pulling Hannah towards her.

"Maybe boys with queer sisters get their entry fee paid for them?" said Hannah, wrapping her arms around Susan's waist.

"Wait" Susan pulled back. "Ginney Weasley?"

"Oh yeah" Hannah ducked to press kisses along Susan's jawline. "Her and Luna."

"Fuck" Susan sounded breathy, pulling Hannah even closer. "I can't believe you knew that before me."

"Yeah I'm great" said Hannah, moving back up to Susan's mouth. "Now shut up and let me kiss you some more."

And she did.

**Author's Note:**

> Just in case you are wondering.
> 
> It was quickly discovered that the minion Lucius Malfoy hired to perform the bonding charm messed it up; causing the couples to need physically proximity but having no impact on their romantic feelings.
> 
> Draco Malfoy did not fall in love with and agree to marry Pansy Parkinson, the outcome his father originally hoped for. Instead he moved into Grimmauld Place with Harry, adopted four Kneazels, and became a best-selling novelist. All his protagonists have horrible fathers and very handsome boyfriends.
> 
> Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley got properly bonded the summer after they left Hogwarts. They have two children, no Kneazels, and signed copies of everything Draco Malfoy has ever published.
> 
> Anthony Goldstein and Marietta Edgecombe were very embarassed to discover that the bond was not actually responsible for their rampant shagging.
> 
> Hannah Abbott and Susan Bones are still together. With Hannah's encouragement and Pomfrey's connections at St Mungo's, Susan got some medical support dealing with her depression. In turn, Susan supported Hannah's attempts to be more assertive and together they launched a gender-neutral line of parenting books for LGBTQIA couples. Ginney Weasley and Luna Lovegood were their first customers.


End file.
